Aerial railway



No. 6|9,536. Patented Feb. l4, |899. J. BUND. AERIAL RAILWAY.

(Appicatioxx4 ziled Mar. 22, 1898.) (No Model.)

5 uvam for 'me Norms razas co. Pno'mwmo., WASHINGTON. D. c4

' panying drawings, forming part of this speci- UNITED STATES PATENTJOI-IN BOND, OF TURLOOK, CALIFORNIA.

AERIAL RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 619,536, datedFebruary 14, 1899.

Application tiled March 22, 189 8.

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BOND, a citizen of the United States, residingat Turlock, in the county of Stanislausand State of California, haveinvented a new and useful Aerial Railway, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to aerial navigation, and is in the nature of anaerial railway, and means whereby power may be supplied to an air-shipor balloon and the vehicle confined in its motion to the line ofrailway.

The object of myinvention is to furnish an aerial railway consisting ofa track to which the motion of the air-ship is to be confined, means forsupporting trolley-line wires, and rolling devices attached to thetrack-rail to which the balloon or air-ship maybe connected, a trolleyattached to the air-ship being trailed along over the trolley-wire,whereby power may be communicated to mechanism contained in the air-shipfor propelling the same.

With this object in view myinvention consists in the improvedconstruction, arrangement, and combination of parts hereinafter fullydescribed and afterward specifically pointed out in the appended claims.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my invention mostnearly appertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed todescribe its construction and operation, reference being had to `-theaccomication, in which- Figure l is a View in side elevationillustrating the practical operation of my invention. Fig. 2 is atransverse vertical section through the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 isa fragmentary detail top plan view illustrating the curved motor andgearing.

Like letters of reference mark the same parts Wherever they occur in thedifferent figures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings by letters, A A indicate a series of poles,upon the upper end of which is mounted a cap B, secured thereto by meansof bolts C.

D is a T-rail, the stem D of which rests in a groove in the upper edgeof the cap B and is securely held in position therein by bolts E.

F indicates the balloon or air-ship, which Serial No. 674,816. (Nomodel.)

maybe made of any suitable material, shape, and proportionate size andbe filled with any suitable buoyant gas to give it the requisitelightness to compensate for the weight of the other parts of therolling-stock. Itis provided with a lower metallic casing Gr,and flatwheels H are secured within the casing upon shafts H', journaled in theupper ends of bearingplates I, secured to inward-turned iianges G/ ofthe metallic casing by bolts G2. plates extend downward below the casingand are outwardly inclined in opposite lateral directions in positionsto extend below the T- rail and straddle the caps B on the poles.

`There are two or more sets of the bearingplates I upon each car, andthey are connected by longitudinal bars l', secured by bolts I2. ShaftsJ are mounted in the lower ends of the bearing-plates I, and on theseshafts are journaled wheels J C The iiat wheels H rest upon the flat topof the T-rail D, and the wheels J', which, like their bearing-plates I,are inclined outward laterally,have their rims formed on the properbevel to contact with the lower side of the top or head of the T-rail,so that the balloon or air-ship will be rigidly held against rising fromor falling below the T-rail, the flat wheels H supporting the structurewhen heavy enough to cause downward pressure on the top of the head ofthe T-rail, and the beveled wheels J', having an upward bearing againstthe under side of the T-rail head, will prevent the structure fromrising when iniated to a degree of lightness sufficient to give it anupward tendency.

One of the shafts H' is extended laterally, as at H2, and forms thedriving-shaft of a mo- Lor K, driven by electricity by means of thecurrent which passes through the wire L and a depneding trolley-rod M,secured to the under surface of the metallic casing G and carrying atits lower end a trolley-wheel M', which runs in contact with a line-wireN, supported upon the upper end of curved brackets O, extendinglaterally and upward from the sides of the pole A and secured thereto bymeans of bolts P.

The construction of my invention will be readily understood from theforegoing description, and its operation may be described as follows:The car being mounted upon the Trail,int1ated sufficiently topractically over- These l IOO come its weight, it will only be necessaryto operate the motor K by the current collected by the trolley M fromthe line-wire N to cause the wheel I'I to be rotated in contact with theflat head of the Trail D, this wheel then becoming the driving-wheel andpropelling the structure at high speed upon the rail, the speed beingregulated by the size of the gearwheels Q and R on the motor-shaft anddriving-shaft H2.

It will be obvious from the foregoing description that my aerial railwaymay be constructed on level ground or upon the stecpest grades, thebuoyancy oi' the balloon or airship tending to always keep it elevatedabove the rail and the connections restricting its movement to such aposition as will always preserve contact between the trolleys andline-Wires. The balloon or air-ship will travel as readily up or downgrade as upon a level surface. By reason of this the construction of theroad will be extremely cheap and no tunneling, cutting, or bridginggullies, &c., being necessary and no grading required.

It will be further obvious that the speed of the balloon or air-shipwill be limited only to the driving power of its mechanism, as currentmay be as readily supplied through the line-Wires and trolleys as to theordinary overhead-trolley-railway lines of the present day. The buoyancyof the car can be regulated so that but little strain upward or downwardwill be brought upon the rail, thereby reducing the wear to a minimum.

While I have illustrated and described what I now believe to be the bestmeans for carrylng out my invention, I do not wish to be understood asrestricting myself to the exact dctails of construction shown anddescribed, but hold that any slight changes or variations as mightsuggest themselves to the ordinary mechanic would properly fall Withinthe limit and scope of my invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The combination of the poles, the vertically-slotted caps mounted onthe top thereof, the T-rail supported with its stem in said slots, themetallic casingof the air-ship, the drivin gwheels thereon resting uponthe head of the rail, the downwardly and outwardly inclined bracketsdepending from the casing on each side of the caps of the poles, and theinclined rollers j ournaled in said brackets and bearing against theunder surface of the head of the rail, substantially as described.

2. The combination with an elevated T- rail, of the carriage comprisingthe bearingplates carrying a roller to bear upon the upper surface ofthe T-rail, and bevel-rollers to bear against the under surface of theT-rail, said plates inclining laterally and downward and straddlin g thetops of the poles, a balloon or air-ship supported upon the carriage andcarryinga motor, curved brackets on the sides of the poles, a line-wiresupported therefrom, and a trolley-pole depending from the carriage andcarryinga trolley-wheel in contact with the wire, substantially asdescribed.

JOHN BOND. lVitnesses:

A. L. MCGILL, H. B. WA'rEns.

